Speaking of Lindbergh Field, someone who matters is now finally coming out and saying what we all have been: that the mayor's plan to move operations to Pacific Highway is a complete joke. But what it also does is talk about the land that Lindbergh Field sits on.

'This Thing is a Joke' Voice of San Diego
E-MAIL POST
Bill Lynch, the former airport authority member who was one of the most ardent supporters of the plan to move the region's international airport to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, just called me out of the blue with an appraisal of the newly developed plan to maximize Lindbergh Field.

"This thing is a joke," he said.

Building tunnels under Lindbergh's runway to move luggage won't work, he said, because the water table is too low. Loading passengers on one side of the runway and moving them to gates on the other side isn't a good idea either, he said. Lindbergh's sole runway will eventually limit its ability to handle passenger demand, he said, so there's little point spending money on it.

"It's such a bad idea that it could've been thought up in Washington or Sacramento," Lynch said.

Lynch asked how the airport authority and its $180 million budget could possibly finance an expansion project that could range as high as $10 billion.

Well, I asked, when he was sitting on the authority's board, how did he expect that same $180 million budget to finance a $7 billion airport construction project at Miramar?

He said, in effect: Don't you think the underlying land at Lindbergh Field would be worth something?

That's an interesting revelation. During the three-year-long effort to close Lindbergh and open a two-runway airport at Miramar, the airport authority staff and appointees always stayed mum about Lindbergh's future. They deflected criticism that they were trying to clear the way for bay-front developers. If the airport closed, they often said, its lease would revert to the Unified Port District of San Diego, which ran the airport before the authority's creation in January 2003.

In other words, the land's future was out of their hands.

Lynch's suggestion isn't a shock. If Lindbergh closed, no one would simply let the bay-front land sit vacant. But, even three years after the Miramar ballot initiative failed, it's the first time I've heard any Miramar supporters publicly admit that Lindbergh's land had any development value.

-- ROB DAVIS
Thursday, March 19 -- 6:08 pm

One of the court houses in Dallas is mixed use. 3 sides of the building have specialty shops like Hallmark and a beauty salon.

San Diego City College Career Technology Center
 

San Diego City College Career Technology Center
5-story, 88,900 square foot educational complex and 700 space parking garage. Block bounded by Broadway, 16th, C St, and freeway sans the southeast corner. Anticipated completion: October 2010. East Village Neighborhood – Upper East Quadrant Neighborhood.

The Photography, Nursing, and a few other departments will be housed in the building.

San Diego Civic Center Peer Review
 

Centre City Development Corporation is hosting the Civic Center Complex Financial Peer Review Public Meeting on Wednesday, March 25 at 5:30p.

The Peer Review conducted by Ernst & Young will be presented with discussion following. The meeting will be held at Centre City Development Corporation's office located at Wells Fargo Building, 401 B St, 4th Floor.

For more information, go to http://www.viva-city.info/cityNews.htm#civic

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SandraLSimmons

I'm following you on Twitter. Who all has twitter accounts? I do, http://twitter.com/kpexpress

Okay you guys we need to keep this thread going let's start by saying what is your favorite building in SD, mine is probanly the Mark

^favorite building of mine would be the abbey on Banker's hill. favorite highrise might be a tougher choice for lack of good options. don't get me wrong there are a lot of attractive highrises in SD but few are really exceptional. I really like Electra personally.

The Stratta is really growing on me, I must admit. At first I hated the rendering, but after it's taking shape I realized that those renderings didn't really capture the sexy curve or the in your face height. i think that it's adding some verticality to Market and 10th Ave corridors.

Wow, the Mark as the Favorite?

To me, it's not exactly ugly, but just not very creative... I think the color gray is one of the worst colors for any building. Not to mention the hideous strip of exposed concrete on the back of it.

It's definitely interesting and it adds height to that part of downtown, but it's kind of a B- bldg to me. Also what bothers me about it is those weird small cranes on the corners. Has anyone else but me noticed this?! It drives me nuts and it's not just this building but on several high rises downtown, especially the residential towers have these crane things that stick out over the corners of the building. Element would be a very cute, pretty building to me if not for all those weird cranes that choke the roof of it!


I think my favorite building downtown is the Emerald Plaza. It's so unique and odd, and during night I love the Green Neon lights at the top of the hexagon towers. But I do understand why many people wouldn't like that...

Hands down, my favorite building in Downtown San Diego is One America Plaza. It's iconic, it's not Bosa, and it's our signature building. I've been thoroughly disappointed to see it lose prominence over the years to other buildings like Electra, the Grande, and others. Unfortunately, it seems that the new I.M. Pei project will completely block OAP from prominence (assuming the project actually gets off the ground).

I am definitely not a fan of the Pei Cobb design, then I thought about it and I am actually excited about having another massive building on the West side of AP. And here's my reason: America Plaza is rarely viewed from the West, if you're in the city you are always looking at it from the East inside the city, and the Pei Cobb building will make for a spectacular backdrop for America Plaza and will only make it look more pronounced. The details of the top will be more obvious and attractive in front of the bulky Pei Cobb.

I also like Strata

I Love OAP and I also love the Omni Hotel from the bayside, very sleek and curvy.

Concerning OAP getting lost in the crowd of similair height buildings; I remember reading that the building's original design was to be 650 ft in height but was scaled down when the exception to the height requirement would of been to time consuming.

I think our skyline would be almost perfect if OAP could stand out above all the other buildings, dont you guys?

^^^I agree, but San Diego has an awkward dead zone that exists between the water's edge and PCH. CCDC has always ranted "power of the water front", but parking lots just doesn't do it for me. I think that San Diego will be amazing as soon as the Navy Pier Complex, Lane Field, and the North Embarcadero visionary plan gets built. And when the airport gets moved out we will start to see some towers with some height above 650' and maybe a few 1000'ers along C street between Civic Center (which the plans for the new one is sweeeeeet) and Park Blvd. This would make for an amazingly sweeping and well balanced skyline running East to West.

Reality:
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...press42/SD.jpg

Possibilities:
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...fiedshadow.jpg

Or:
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...dnightmod2.jpg

The Marriott Residence Inn has a small section of their site on 5th Ave, I wish that they would put in a pool like exists in Dallas. Wouldn't this be sweet looking over 5th Ave?

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture2-1.jpg

Cost savings of City Hall project questioned
 

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO — Rebuilding San Diego's City Hall might be less of a money-saving idea than once thought.

A new report finds no favoritism in the previous analysis of a proposed City Hall redevelopment, but it questions some assumptions that made the proposal appear to save the city more than $400 million over 50 years.

Members of the City Council, who might finally vote on the idea in June or July, have long said the project won't move ahead unless it saves taxpayers money.

The report will be discussed at a public meeting at 5:30 p.m. today at the Centre City Development Corp., 401 B St., Fourth Floor, downtown San Diego.

Consultant Ernst & Young was hired to cast a critical eye on an earlier report, after an oblique connection was discovered between the previous consultant and the potential developer.

The new report concludes: “We believe there are a number of changes, which if made, may change the gap between the development and non-development scenarios considerably.”

That's not what Gerding Edlen, the Portland, Ore.-based firm hoping to get the job, wanted to hear.

But Gerding Edlen spokesman Tom Cody said he remains confident that tearing down the 1960s-era, asbestos-riddled City Hall and replacing it with a 500-foot iconic skyscraper with wind turbines and solar panels will be a good deal for San Diego.

“I still think even if you take the most conservative approach, we will come out ahead,” Cody said. “Even if the gap narrows to $250 million, or whatever, there's also the possibility of working it back up through other means like taking advantage of construction-cost savings that haven't been factored in yet.”

Mayor Jerry Sanders launched the idea of redeveloping the four-block Civic Center complex in 2007, hoping to consolidate city employees at one site instead of spending at least $11.6 million yearly on leased office space.

A field of developers was narrowed to one, after Gerding's proposal was shown to have the lowest cost. In August, a report by Jones Lang LaSalle of Washington D.C., declared that Gerding's proposal would cost the city $628 million over 50 years. Staying in the current buildings, which need considerable renovation, and continuing to lease: $1.05 billion.

Those figures later were tweaked to be $587 million for Gerding's proposal and $1.08 billion for staying put.

Now, with Ernst & Young's criticisms on the table, the calculations will be done again. Some of the changes: Parking garage revenue wasn't treated evenhandedly the first time, and lease rates and construction costs were pegged too high for today's economy – all of which made the stay-in-place scenario appear more costly.

The new results are expected in two or three weeks.

The Ernst & Young report also said the first consultant understated the city's risk if the developer defaults, and that the developer promised to guarantee against overruns but built a $54 million contingency into the price.

Additionally, the report recommends asking office building owners for new lease offers, given the economic downtown, though that's something the city already is doing.

Another new idea: Prepare a 10-year projection showing the city's costs to make no changes except emergency fixes, given its budget deficit. A similar scenario was pegged at $315 million over 15 years.

Councilman Carl DeMaio, the plan's most vocal critic, said he was glad for the report, which raised issues he has pushed for months, including renegotiating the leases and looking for a short-term, low-cost solution until the city rights its finances.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori.../?zIndex=72187

WOW - that is CRAZY!!! On which floor is that pool??? Lordie!

that's in dallas? :omg:

I know the some of the big issues in San Diego are that we need a new airport and a new stadium. My question is, why doesn't anyone care that we have such a crappy old arena in this town? They have been talking about replacing it since the 80's but nothing has happened. Why do they keep putting lipstick on that pig? I think the Sports Arena is one of the biggest negatives in our city along with a bad airport, stadium and transit. Thoughts?